Abstract
In 2020, Netflix premiered Toy Boy and Valeria . These two Plano a Plano productions proved to be a success, ranking in the top ten most viewed content in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, and non-Spanish-speaking countries like Brazil, France, Greece, India, Switzerland, and the United States in their first week. Despite the notable differences in genre and plot, both Toy Boy and Valeria depict female characters that attempt to push against traditional notions of female behavior but ultimately fail to do so. This essay departs from and engages with Betty Friedan and Susan Fraiman’s feminist theory, Mareike Jenner’s analysis on Netflix as a new type of media, and Lynne Joyrich’s study on reception and gender. Ingrid Luna analyzes the discursive devices that construct and adapt topics of feminism to be marketable for a mass audience, resulting in the reproduction of traditional heteronormative discourses to ensure their reception within Latin American audiences.
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